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Golden Age... but also Trump keeps using emergency powers for the economy
One Emergency After Another
“Emergency powers would tend to kindle emergencies,” wrote Justice Robert Jackson in 1952. This warning came as the Supreme Court prohibited President Truman from using emergency authority to seize the nation’s steel mills during the Korean War. Today, Justice Jackson’s words are more relevant than ever: In February, Chief Justice John Roberts echoed Jackson’s alarm in his opinion invalidating President Trump’s use of emergency authority to impose global tariffs.
Emergency powers remove procedural and substantive constraints on executive power and enable the president to respond swiftly in times of crisis. But these powers are also easy to trigger and hard to unwind, making them vulnerable to abuse.
President Trump’s invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose global tariffs continued a long-standing pattern of presidents using IEEPA authority as a “standard tool of foreign policy” in response to emergencies of questionable legitimacy. Beyond IEEPA, however, past presidents have generally exercised self-restraint, largely reserving non-IEEPA powers for responses to genuine crises. President Biden’s use of the COVID-19 emergency to cancel over $400 billion in student loans and the first Trump administration’s reliance on a dubious border emergency to fund construction of a southern border wall are notable exceptions. But they are notable precisely because non-IEEPA abuses of emergency powers are so rare.
By contrast, as shown in the data on “emergency orders” discussed below, compared to President Trump, no recent president has invoked non-IEEPA emergency powers more frequently, across a broader range of issues, and as a routine tool to advance domestic policy goals. Many of these purported emergencies are dubious, as demonstrated by the president’s energy emergency declaration, which has been used as a policy tool to circumvent Congress.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/one-emergency-after-another
“Emergency powers would tend to kindle emergencies,” wrote Justice Robert Jackson in 1952. This warning came as the Supreme Court prohibited President Truman from using emergency authority to seize the nation’s steel mills during the Korean War. Today, Justice Jackson’s words are more relevant than ever: In February, Chief Justice John Roberts echoed Jackson’s alarm in his opinion invalidating President Trump’s use of emergency authority to impose global tariffs.
Emergency powers remove procedural and substantive constraints on executive power and enable the president to respond swiftly in times of crisis. But these powers are also easy to trigger and hard to unwind, making them vulnerable to abuse.
President Trump’s invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose global tariffs continued a long-standing pattern of presidents using IEEPA authority as a “standard tool of foreign policy” in response to emergencies of questionable legitimacy. Beyond IEEPA, however, past presidents have generally exercised self-restraint, largely reserving non-IEEPA powers for responses to genuine crises. President Biden’s use of the COVID-19 emergency to cancel over $400 billion in student loans and the first Trump administration’s reliance on a dubious border emergency to fund construction of a southern border wall are notable exceptions. But they are notable precisely because non-IEEPA abuses of emergency powers are so rare.
By contrast, as shown in the data on “emergency orders” discussed below, compared to President Trump, no recent president has invoked non-IEEPA emergency powers more frequently, across a broader range of issues, and as a routine tool to advance domestic policy goals. Many of these purported emergencies are dubious, as demonstrated by the president’s energy emergency declaration, which has been used as a policy tool to circumvent Congress.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/one-emergency-after-another
Trump invokes war powers to juice fossil energy, grid
President Donald Trump invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act on Monday to shore up federal funding for a host of energy projects — involving oil, gas, coal and the grid — as the White House moved to buffer climbing electricity and fuel costs.
The president signed a series of determinations under Section 3 of the 1950 law, which gives presidents sweeping emergency authorities to control domestic sectors. The orders target the power grid, natural gas, LNG, the coal sector, and domestic petroleum production, refining and capacity logistics.
A White House official said the determinations are necessary for the Department of Energy to deploy funding that was secured in Republicans’ 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act under Title III of the Defense Production Act.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-invokes-war-powers-to-juice-fossil-energy-grid/
President Donald Trump invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act on Monday to shore up federal funding for a host of energy projects — involving oil, gas, coal and the grid — as the White House moved to buffer climbing electricity and fuel costs.
The president signed a series of determinations under Section 3 of the 1950 law, which gives presidents sweeping emergency authorities to control domestic sectors. The orders target the power grid, natural gas, LNG, the coal sector, and domestic petroleum production, refining and capacity logistics.
A White House official said the determinations are necessary for the Department of Energy to deploy funding that was secured in Republicans’ 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act under Title III of the Defense Production Act.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-invokes-war-powers-to-juice-fossil-energy-grid/
Should a "golden age" have this many crises?